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Technology

Update to Windows 8 doesn’t fix problems for traditional PCs

WINDOWS 8.1 PREVIEW

Likes

• New boot-to-desktop mode; ability to adjust screen space devoted to apps when viewing more
than one; new universal search feature; new feature that automatically updates apps and syncs them
to other devices.

Dislikes

• Software remains ignorant of whether users are using a tablet or traditional PC; new Start
button doesn’t restore old Start menu; quality and diversity of apps far less than what’s available
for iPad or Android devices.

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Microsoft is developing an update to Windows 8 that promises to “refine” the clunky software.
But if a preview of the update is any indication, the changes won’t go far enough to address
Windows 8’s flaws.

Windows 8, which made its debut last year, was designed to bring Microsoft’s flagship operating
system into the post-PC era while continuing to serve traditional PC users. Unfortunately, this
desire to serve both camps has yielded software that serves neither particularly well.

Windows 8 is oblivious to the context in which it’s being used and disregards how users might
want to interact with it. Its new “Modern” interface — which was designed with touch screens in
mind, but traditional PC users can’t avoid — represents a significant step backward in function for
nontouch-screen users. And users of the new interface have found a narrow range of apps available
for it.

The new update, dubbed Windows 8.1 and expected to be broadly available this year, attempts to
address some of those shortcomings.

With the new software, users can choose to have their computers load the traditional desktop
interface when they turn them on — rather than having to pass through the Modern interface first.
Microsoft also has restored the familiar — and widely missed — Start button to the desktop
taskbar.

Windows 8 allowed users to split the screen between two Modern applications, but would devote
only about a quarter of the screen to one of them, while the other got the rest. With the update,
users can display more than two Modern applications at once — if they have a big-enough screen —
and can adjust how much screen space each gets. Similarly, users of Windows 8.1 can see two or more
tabbed browser windows in Internet Explorer, something they can’t do with the original version of
the operating system.

And Microsoft appears to be focusing on boosting the number and quality of the apps users can
choose from. The Windows 8 store now has more than 100,000 apps, and the company announced at its
developer conference last month that apps from Facebook, Flipboard and the National Football League
— which are popular on iPads and Android devices — are on the way.

Microsoft also has added features to Windows 8.1. Among the best are a search feature that
searches the device, the Web and the Windows app store simultaneously; and a feature that will
automatically update your apps and sync them across your Windows devices.

While such changes are welcome, they don’t solve Windows 8’s basic problems. It’s still blithely
unaware of the context in which it’s being used. Even with the new “boot to desktop” mode, you’ll
still often find yourself in the Modern interface, even on a keyboard-and-mouse PC. And there’s a
good chance that even if you’re committed to the Modern interface, you’ll find yourself fumbling
with the desktop, trying to click icons that were designed for a pointer — not your fingertips.

Rather than restoring a well-used feature, the new Start button is just a facade. It doesn’t
bring back the old Windows Start menu but simply takes users back to the Modern home screen. Users
can configure it to show all their applications instead — in a full-screen Modern view — but even
that view doesn’t duplicate all the features of the old Start menu.

Even with the new features, the Modern interface remains a poor fit for traditional PC
users.

Windows 8.1 is still in development. It — and the Windows app selection — might well improve by
the time it’s officially launched. Let’s hope so, because they both still need a lot of work.

Troy Wolverton is a technology columnist for the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News.